Australia - Canberra - Floriade

It's spring in Australia! On Monday, Lorraine, Rosie and Bob went to the Floriade flower display in Canberra. This is the 21st year for the annual display. This year the flowers were planted to depict movie themes (Australia movies or movies with Australian actors, e.g. Crocodile Dundee, Babe, Shine, Muriel's Wedding, etc.).

To start with, here's something you need at every good movie - popcorn!
Next, here's a shot of Crocodile Dundee. Notice the white flower crocodiles heading toward the boat. Honestly, this one was easy to see. Many of the others need an aerial perspective.

Here's a giant floral keyboard dedicated to the Australian film Shine which tells the story of an Australian pianist.

Every good movie has "note-able" music. These flower notes represent the musical scores.

Lastly, here are your mates, Bob and Rosie.

G'day mates!

Australia - Running the Bridge!

On Sunday, 21-SEP, Graeme and Bob ran the Sydney half-marathon and Lorraine and Rosie did the 4 km bridge fun run/walk. We put together some random shots from the race day.

Here's the four of us before the half-marathon begins. It's very early in the morning since the half-marathon started at 6:20 am. Hey - let's get this running over with before I wake up! Bob and Rosie are enjoying the scenery prior to the race. Graeme heading to the starting line for the half-marathon.
Rosie is relaxing before the 4 km bridge walk/run. Lorraine and Rosie getting ready for the start of the Bridge walk/run. Lorraine walking across the Bay Bridge.Rosie walking across the Bay Bridge.The race ended at the Sydney Opera House. The place was really full of people. More the 25,000 participated in all 4 of the running/walking events. It was a fun day and great weather for the race.

Australia - Saturday Morning at the Taronga Zoo

On Saturday morning we headed out to the Taronga Zoo; a short drive from where we were staying. We have a lot of good zoo shots, but I thought you might like these best.

Here's close view of some of the giraffes at the zoo. The giraffe handler is giving a lecture about giraffes in the wild.

Next come the Koalas - an Australian favorite. First we have the sleeping koala. Looks like he should fall out of the tree, but he just hangs on.

Next we have a mom and baby koala. See the little baby's face - it's so cute!

Finally, we have the traditional koala up in a tree.

The neat thing about these koalas is that we actually got to see some of them MOVE! I don't think I've ever see a koala move in a zoo in the US. They were neat to see.

Australia - Friday in Sydney - Part 2

From where we were staying, we took the ferry over to the Circular Quay (pronounced "key"). It's a short trip that drops you off within walking distance of downtown. After getting off the ferry we walked over to the park to get our packets for the race. On the way over, we saw some aborigines playing a didgeridoo. A really unique sounding instrument. I'll need to buy a didgeridoo CD before I return to the US.

We got our packets for the race (bib number, timing chip, etc.). Here are Bob and Rosie in front of the tent where we got our packets.We then went for a walk downtown to see some of the sites of beautiful Sydney. Great fun!

Australia - Friday in Sydney - Part 1

After Lorraine picked us up, we went to Robin and Graeme Harris' house in a very nice suburb of Sydney. Here's a picture of the Harris' house. It was a great place to stay and very convenient for all the things we did while in Sydney. Thank you Robin and Graeme!

After dropping off our bags we went for a walk around the neighborhood. We were right next to Sydney harbor. The views we had were simply outstanding. Here are a couple of shots we took on our walk. The brightly colored Rosella birds were beautiful. Here's a Rosella in a banksia tree - both new to us.

Here are 1) Rosie and Lorraine and 2) Bob and Rosie on the bay with the Opera House and Bay Bridge in the background.

Here's a close-up picture of the Bay Bridge. Notice the people walking up and down the bridge? They're the little ants you see on the bridge. We plan to do the bridge walk on Saturday 10-OCT. Really looks fun.

Australia

We arrived in Sydney, Australia, at about 6:20 AM on Friday, 19-SEP, after leaving LAX at 10:30 PM on Wednesday, 17-SEP. Yes, we totally lost Thursday - where did it go? Both Rosie and I were able to get some sleep on the plane. I believe Rosie slept at least 8 hrs of the 14 hr flight.

Our friend, Lorraine Fletcher, was at the Sydeny airport to me us. We met her at the intersection of two well known US establishments: McDonald's and Krispy Kreme. In the photo below, Rosie is munching on a Krispy Kreme doughnut while Lorraine is enjoying her McDonald's hamburger.

Here's a picture of Krispy Kreme taken from our seats at McDonald's.


Our goals for the day were: stay awake, do some sightseeing in Sydney and stay awake. We were successful in all - as long as we kept moving. We saw some great sites and stayed awake with no naps until about 9:30 PM. Being outside in the fresh air really helped. The weather in Sydney was fantastic and the spring flowers were really beautiful.

We Went to Branson and It Rained

On Tuesday, 02-SEP, Rosie and I drove up to Branson, MO, to hear a timeshare pitch and see the presentation of Noah the Musical. The timeshare pitch got us free hotel (below 1 star?), dinner coupon for a restaurant we'll never go back to, reduced ticket prices and a bit of gas money. However, the supposedly 90 minute sales pitch ran for over 3 hours. Luckily it wasn't high pressure. At the end I told the woman we weren't interested and that was OK.

We had the chance to walk around the river front area of Branson which looks really nice. The water spray and fire in the background below are synchronized with music. The sync was really good. Rosie is standing overlooking the White River / Lake Taneycomo.

Bob is standing down by the river with the water spouts in the background. The song changed and the water/fire show wasn't nearly as exciting. Which is probably better since we would have gotten wet that close to the spray.
On Wednesday night we went to see Noah The Musical. It was excellent. Here's a shot from in front of the Sight and Sound Theater. Note: the theater was built especially for the presentation of Noah. Here's a shot of the screen inside the theater before the musical starts. We couldn't get the entire screen to fit on the camera.
At one point you feel like you're inside the ark with animals all around. There are animals down both sides of the theater. They used both live and anamitronic animals in the production. Bob had an aisle seat and many of the live animals walked down the aisle right next to him - NEAT!

The weather even cooperated. It rained the entire time we were in Branson. So going to see a presentation of Noah was a real appropriate thing to do.

We drove back to HSV Thursday morning and picked Sam up at the doggy daycare. He was glad to see us. He ate like a horse when he got home and has been sleeping ever since. So what's new?

We can highly recommend Noah to you if you ever make a trip to Branson. However, neither of us have any interest in returning to Branson. We're just not "show going" people.

We can also recommend eating at the College of the Ozarks Dobyns dining hall. The meal and service were excellent. By far the best and most relaxed meal we had during the entire trip.